Hello friends, happy Saturday! Are you frozen, cuddled up somewhere and thinking of comfort food? Or are you making plans to seize the day because like Choctaw, Oklahoma, your town has dodged another winter bullet? However your January Saturday looks, I have a small, luscious dose of literature to share. Maybe it will warm you a little.
Albert Camus was an Algerian writer living in France during and following the Nazi occupation. Brought up by proletariat parents and active in journalism during a fascinating chapter of history, he contributed to the world a sea of newsy, theatrical, and philosophical writings for all of his 47 years (Camus was killed in a car wreck). In 1957 he became the second youngest recipient of the Nobel prize in literature.
The poem below is one of his that I have personally loved for many years, and as casual readers are free to do I have always gleaned from it whatever I wish, whatever I need at the time. Lately, I appreciate the idea that we can nurture within ourselves a wellspring of joy, health, and light. Not humanism, by the way, just a deliberate sort of well-being and faith.
I understand the need for all the seasons, including the dying and waiting times like winter and grief; but I also believe strongly in the power of gratitude and joy to transform our circumstances. Imagine building a little greenhouse for our own happiness. Like growing our own gorgeous food, cultivating our own private sense of health and joy frees us from relying so heavily on outside circumstances to be content, you know? If we can from the inside out, by our own volition, change some perspective and even actual life circumstances? Rule over them? Quite a tempting thought.
My dear, in the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love.
In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile.
In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm.
I realized, through it all, that…
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy.
For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me,
within me, there’s something stronger-
something better, pushing right back.
An easy little dig about Camus lead me to a school of thought called absurdism and, friends, it’s pretty interesting. It teases to the differences between an absence of hope and actual despair: “…the total absence of hope, which has nothing to do with despair, a continual refusal, which must not be confused with renouncement – and a conscious dissatisfaction.” Does this sound to you like a little echo that despair is a choice, and so maybe also is joy?
I hope you like this poem. And I hope that whether you are simply unhappy with the cold and the dormancy of January (like my husband) or whether you are in a true valley of despair, one of those times in life when you are pressed on all sides by difficult, negative outside forces, that you find within yourself all the love, smiles, calm, and summer. I hope you can gather whatever strength you need and improve your circumstances.
You absolutely can cultivate within yourself an endless summer. All those big and little ways you have learned to nourish yourself emotionally and bodily, spiritually, all of it, they are important and valuable. I hope those seeds germinate and sprout right when you need them to. I hope they bloom and brighten your scenery and attract the right people you need and want.
And I hope you find some disco balls, yarn crafts, jungle greenery, and other things that please you to make the picture complete.
No despair. Bring on the cold.
XOXOXOXO
I absolutely hated Camus when we had to read him in high school, but I love the idea of cultivating an endless summer inside myself. I my need to find a copy of this poem to hang in my office.
I don’t remember any exposure to Camus in school. Why didn’t you like him, the material or the politics or something else, do you remember? Thanks for reading, Marisa, it sounds like a bunch of us are keeping this poem in plain sight. I love it so much. xoxo
I love this Marie. It certainly fits for myself as I struggle during the gloomy winter months. On a deeper level I feel many of my patients could benefit from this poem. I’m now on a mission to find a copy and frame it for my therapy room.
Oh hi Sheila! Another beautiful poem we both love, how cool. I just love the mindset of generating our own joy. I know from talking to friends that some people suffer in ways that cannot be “thought out,” and I am certainly no expert, but I have seen some pretty amazing transformations in my own life. It’s exciting. Thanks as always for checking in. xoxo Trails soon!
This is beautiful, Marie! While I embrace a bright, snowy winter day, these gloomy (icy) ones can wear on me. This is a great reminder to not wish them away counting down until spring, but rather to find the positives that are always there.
Thank you Marcia! I love each of the seasons but will admit to needing sunshine most of the time, haha, it sure helps. Yes to seeing the uniqueness of each day, whatever it brings, and making the most of it. xoxo
I somehow found your blog today almost a year after you posted Albert Camus’s lovely writing. I have long recited this to myself especially during difficult times. Ironically I posted part of this on Instagram today with a photo I took this week of an icy beach scene…we have had record breaking cold here on the east coast so definitely wishing for an invincible summer! Thank you for sharing, happy I found you today!
Hi Paula, so nice to meet you! That quote has been special to me for a long time. I’m glad it helped us cross paths. Happy February, hope you’re staying warm!
What book, novel or whatever contains this poem by Camus?
Camus is not the author of this letter, he wrote only an isolated sentence ‘In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer’. He wrote it in ‘Retour to Tipasa’ essey.
The original quote, marvellous itself, was simply extended and decontextualized by someone…
Albert Camus was born in Algeria while it was still a French colony, but he was born a French citizen, not Algerian. Specifically, Camus was what the French call a “pied noir,” The term, which tranlates into English as “black foot,” refers to French citizens born in French colonial Algeria, many of whom farmed or worked as agricultural laborers, therefore having their feet in the black soil of the fileds. When the Algerian revolution ended with Algeria’s independence in 1962, France evacuated and repatiraited over 800,000 French citizens. Many of them had never resided in France and they arrived mostly destitute as the new Algerian government had seized the French colonists’ land and bank accounts.
Merci Kasia!
I had never heard of Camus writing poetry. I also didn’t know his essay “Retour à Tapisa,” so thank you for leading me to that! By the way, I didn’t mean to respond to you, but to the original poster about the fact that Camus was French, not Algerian.
Have you seen Gillo Pontecorvo’s (1966?) film “La Bataille d’Algers”? I used to use it in one of my courses to help students understand both main perspectives on Algeria’s fight for independence from France.
My high school teacher made us read in detail line by line THE STRANGER by Camus professing his absurdism which my teacher referred to as ‘Existentialism’ which Camus rejected but nevertheless became labeled with!. I’m so glad to find a poem which reflects a kinder, more tolerable Camus than his book philosophies especially now that I am much older and wiser. Thank you for introducing his poetry to your readers. Love this inspirational poem which express deeply soulful feelings.
I came across this site just exactly when I needed to re-read Camus’ quote. I lost my beloved husband to a long battle with congestive heart failure. Not only was I grieving his loss but also feeling very alone and isolated from the rest of the world. Then in the depths of the Winter of 2020, Covid 19 hit. Now I was truly alone in my house and literally, as well as figuratively, isolated from the world. On my own, completely responsible for my own need to stock up on everything I would need to sustain myself through this plague, I finally finished finding all the food and safety and sanitizing items I needed. During the search, I had a focus, a mission to accomplish. The mission has been accomplished, and tonight I found myself in tears. With the mission accomplished, I had nothing to face but the seemingly endless length of the unknowable future of how this virus was going to play out and how long it would take. All I knew was that I was now left to face this alone and I had nothing to focus on was the desolation of Winter. In being re-exposed to Camus’ quote, my heart lightened as I was reminded of the invincible summer inside of me. I will face this change in my world the same way I’ve dealt with as with every other time of Winter of my soul throughout my life.
I love your analysis of this. I really enjoyed learning about nihilism and existentialism when I read “The Stranger” by Camus. Thank you for posting!
Thanks, Marie. Here is the essay where the crucial phrase appears: https://tipaza.typepad.fr/mon_weblog/2019/08/return-to-tipasa-albert-camus.html.
Thank you so much for this reference. What a magnificent piece of writing.